A curve in $\Bbb R^2$ with non zero curvature is characterized by it’s curvature. Is there a contradiction through this example

curvesdifferential-geometrymultivariable-calculusparametrization

A curve in $\Bbb R^2$ with non zero curvature is characterized by it's curvature i.e. Let $f: \Bbb R \rightarrow \Bbb R^2 ~\& ~g:\Bbb R \rightarrow \Bbb R^2$ be two $2$ times differentiable path-length parametrizations of curves $C_f$ and $C_g $ in $\Bbb R^3$. If $k_f(s)=k_g(s) \ne 0 ~\forall ~s \in \Bbb R,$ then the two curves are identical except for probably their position in $\Bbb R^2$

Let us consider an example. Let $C_f$ be the curve parametrized by the function $f :\Bbb R \rightarrow \Bbb R^2~|~f(t)=(t,t^3) $ and $C_g$ be the curve parametrized by the function $g: \Bbb R \rightarrow \Bbb R^2~|~g(t)=(t,|t^3|).$

Then, I was able to compute that the curvatures $k_{C_f}(f(t))=k_{C_g}((g(t))=\dfrac {6t}{\sqrt {1+9t^4}}, t \in \Bbb R$. But, if we sketch the images $\{(t,t^3): t \in \Bbb R \}$ and $\{(t,|t^3|): t \in \Bbb R \}$, then they are not identical.

Why does this seem to contradict the above theorem in bold?

Best Answer

Your parametrizations $f$ and $g$ are not parametrizations by path-length, and so the theorem you quote does not apply to them. Moreover, even if they were, the hypothesis $k_f(s)=k_g(s)\neq 0$ for all $s$ does not hold, since you your calculation the curvatures are $0$ at $t=0$.

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